Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Camilla Hunt Cole takes readers on an incredible journey through the loves of one family in ‘Mesquite’

Camilla Hunt Cole takes readers on a journey of loss, growth, and self-discovery in her novel Mesquite. A story that takes a look at the inner life of love in its many forms, Mesquite is beautifully written, with vivid prose and characters that experience the range of human emotions in an almost poetic light.

Cole’s
Texas family tree is a mesquite: a little scraggly, but Texas tough.
After twenty-five years of marriage, Molly and Jim begin to realize
that they have little more in common than their shared financial
difficulties. Uncertain of where her life is going, which direction her
future might take, and if her prayers are even being heard, Molly
travels back to Texas to do a roots tour with her sisters.

The
three women head out to visit small towns in Texas, where their
ancestors’ romantic relationships began, and find more than they
expected. At each stop on the tour, stories of love pour out, love
stories of three of the most romantic eras in American history: Westward
Expansion, the Roaring Twenties, and the Rockin’ Fifties. The legacy
of love left behind by their ancestors is deeply powerful and immensely
personal. These “roots tours” become a source of both bonding and
inspiration for the three sisters, still Molly begins to wonder:
although these trips bring the love of the past to the surface, are they
enough to give her the strength of the mesquite?

A phenomenal story of searching through the remnants of the past to build a future, Mesquite
is both moving and profound, and will draw readers into the hot, dry
Texas setting as the lives and loves of the sisters’ ancestors unfold.

Camilla Hunt Cole

Camilla
Cole has worked as an English instructor to both native and non-native
English speakers at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. She has
also worked as a licensed professional counselor and certified group
therapist, teaching coping skills to chronic pain sufferers. Her
greatest joy in life is being a wife, mother, and grandmother to her
large family. Inspired by them, she wrote Mesquite to share her view of love, displayed through generations.